MORE than 100 vendors protested outside the City Mall Shopping Centre in Prampi Makara district on Wednesday to demand that the owner, Taiwan’s Fu Yang Investment Co, lower the rents on its retail space.

Clothing vendor Rin Manith said shopkeepers could not afford to pay the monthly rate charged by the owners of the four-storey building.

“If we compare the rent on a store here with those of other shopping centres, City Mall is the most expensive,” he said, adding that City Mall charged between US$40 and $65 per square metre each month, whereas other malls charged as little as $28.

Rin Manith said that tough economic times made it especially important for vendors in the newly opened mall to save money.

“If the rent is $1,500, we lose $1,000 every month. How can we continue our business?” he said.

City Mall’s director Lee Hsieh Yu could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.